“The wound is where the Light enters you.” – Rumi
In a society fixated on perfection, we tend to overlook the fact that it is our imperfections that allow for growth and enlightenment.
We often conceal our wounds, strive for flawlessness, and chase after an ideal of completeness as if it were the ultimate goal. But what if true divinity is not found in what is flawless, but in what is broken? What if God is not a creator of perfect plans, but a companion in the messy and beautiful journey of transformation?
This may sound unconventional. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, shouldn’t the world be a reflection of a flawless design? However, I have come to understand that divine omniscience does not equate to divine micromanagement. It signifies profound and compassionate understanding. God understands the detours, the setbacks, the joy, and the sorrow. God recognizes that growth is a gradual process, and sometimes, breaking down is a necessary part of the journey towards becoming.
I have personally experienced this truth. I have battled addiction, emerged scarred and transformed. For years, I resented my own imperfections – the mistakes, the guilt, the story I wished to conceal. But with time, I realized that these cracks were allowing something precious to enter: humility, empathy, grace. Recovery did not erase the damage; it revealed a different kind of beauty – one that is rooted in authenticity, humanity, and vulnerability.
Embracing Imperfections: The Art of Kintsugi
Japanese culture offers a concept known as kintsugi – the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, they are celebrated. The object becomes more valuable, not in spite of the imperfections but because of them. Alongside kintsugi are wabi-sabi, the appreciation of imperfection, and kaizen, the philosophy of continuous growth. Together, they convey a profound truth: Perfection is not a destination but a continual process.
Even in evolution, the fundamental process of life’s unfolding, imperfection plays a crucial role. Evolution is not a march towards flawlessness but a dance shaped by experimentation, adaptation, and emergence. Nothing in nature was created in its final form. Every living being carries a history of imperfect steps that have led to survival and innovation.
Importantly, evolution does not progress in spite of imperfections but because of them. The so-called “errors” in DNA replication drive creativity and innovation. Without these imperfections, there would be no room for creativity in the universe. Life, by its very nature, is incomplete. It is an ongoing experiment in sacred transformation.
This theme is echoed throughout spiritual history as well. Take Handsome Lake, the 18th-century Seneca prophet. After battling addiction and despair, he experienced a vision that transformed not only his own life but also the spiritual landscape of his community. His teachings, a blend of Haudenosaunee tradition and newfound moral insight, gave rise to the Code of Handsome Lake, a movement centered on sobriety, community, and renewal.
Was he flawless? No. But therein lies the beauty. His metamorphosis held power not because he followed a perfect path, but because he stumbled and yet found his way. His imperfections served as a gateway for the light to shine through.
Striving for Progress, Not Perfection
To perceive God in this light is to shift from pursuing perfection to embracing possibility. A cracked seed gives birth to a forest. A wounded creature adapts. A species evolves into consciousness. Perhaps God is not erasing our flaws but collaborating with them. The discord is an integral part of the symphony.
Imagine God not as an architect but as a patient gardener, not as a blueprint maker but as a responsive choreographer, alive and engaged. In this divine dance, imperfection is not a setback but a step forward. It is progress, momentum, growth in motion.
Kaizen teaches us that transformation occurs gradually. In a spiritual context, this implies that God does not demand immediate purity but invites us into a slow, sacred evolution shaped by compassion, practice, and time. Not perfection but progress. Not flawlessness but fidelity.
However, I understand the apprehension. There is a genuine fear of relinquishing the old structure, the notion that without striving for an ideal of flawlessness, we may become complacent. That without the fear of divine disapproval, our growth may stagnate.
Some may argue: If you honor your imperfection, are you not dishonoring God’s plan?
Doesn’t grace without judgment lead to indifference, even chaos?
This fear is valid, shaped by centuries of theology linking holiness to performance and redemption to purity. Yet, here lies the paradox: it is often shame, not grace, that paralyzes us. Perfectionism, not humility, is what impedes us from taking risks, creating, evolving.
True transformation does not stem from loathing our imperfections but from trusting that we are already cherished and thus free to change.
Grace does not exempt us from responsibility. It empowers us to rise again.
It proclaims: You are not disqualified by your imperfections. You are initiated through them.
Not because brokenness is the objective, but because truth is. And once we cease pretending, healing becomes conceivable.
Our wounds do not defy God’s plan. God’s will operates through them.
Exploring Charles Hartshorne’s Process Philosophy
Perhaps there is a deeper existential and theological implication at play here, something that is both thought-provoking and profound. I have always been intrigued by the work of Process philosophers and theologians, particularly Charles Hartshorne, a thinker who also happened to be an avid ornithologist. Hartshorne envisioned God not as an unchanging, all-powerful entity but as a dynamic presence engaged in an authentic relationship with a evolving world.
In his theology, the pursuit of perfection often masks a desire to become God, to transcend our human limitations and assume control. However, he cautions that this inclination is a subtle distortion of faith, a form of idolatry. It is an attempt to achieve flawlessness not as an act of devotion but as a way to evade the necessity for trust, connection, and humility.
Hartshorne upheld God’s sovereignty and benevolence but was willing to forego traditional attributes like omnipotence and omniscience. This was not a diminishment of the divine but an affirmation of relational power, a God who evolves alongside us, empathizes with us, and partakes in our joys and sorrows.
God’s perfection is not about control but about responsiveness. It is not about unchanging power but about enduring love.
In this perspective, the desire for flawlessness is not a sign of spiritual maturity but a resistance to the relational dynamic that God invites us into. It is a refusal to allow God to be God and to acknowledge our sacred role in the collaborative act of creation.
To seek growth through grace is not about lowering the bar. It is about stepping aside and allowing God to work unhindered.
Each Moment is a New Beginning
This message holds particular significance in today’s world. It is a reminder that each of us is experiencing life for the first time. Even the wisest among us have never been this age before. We are all navigating uncharted territory. The journey is challenging enough without the added burden of pretending to have it all figured out.
What we need is grace, for ourselves and for others.
From this vantage point, pain is not an indication of divine absence but rather a sign that the sacred is closer than we think. Like a seed sprouting in darkness, transformation often begins in the places we wish to conceal.
Therefore, let us embrace a different kind of faith: not a belief in a flawless world but a trust in a sacred one. Not a life devoid of scars but a life where scars glisten with gold. In this theology of transformation, every detour, every stumble, every misstep contributes to the sacred process of becoming.
We are not static beings in pursuit of an ideal. We are living embodiments of divine evolution – ever-growing, ever-unfolding. Perhaps God’s greatest act is not in creating a perfect world but in co-creating a beautiful one, through us and with us.
A world that breathes, flexes, breaks, and yet heals.
In our imperfections, we find connection. In our wounds, we encounter the sacred. And in this ongoing miracle of life, we are not merely drawing closer to God. We are moving in tandem with God.
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image 1: George Payne; image 2: Jesse Cornplanter